Name Recognition Is Part Of The Game

POLITICS - Steve Nichol & Nicole Sterghos

Looks like state House District 89 Democratic voters have a chance to vote for Klein after all.

Guarina Torres Klein, 48, a Sandpiper Shores Elementary School teacher, is seeking the seat being vacated by state Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton.

Klein, the fourth-grade teacher and Democratic Executive Committee member from west of Boca Raton, insists she isn't banking on any benefits of having the same last name as Klein the lawyer seeking higher office.

"The fact he's Klein and I'm Klein, it just worked out that way," she said. "I hope the people read the issues and get to know the [candidates)."

Scott Brenner, a commercial real estate agent, and Glenn Wichinsky, a Boca Raton attorney, are other Democrats running for the Boca Raton-Delray Beach area seat. Attorney Barry Silver of Boca Raton also has expressed interest.

One person who knows all about the benefits of a name is Tax Collector John K. Clark, who was appointed by Gov. Lawton Chiles in 1991 when longtime Tax Collector Allen Clark died after 17 years in office.

"When you boil it all down in politics, the very best thing you can have is name recognition. People know the name Clark," said Clark, a Democrat.

Jeb Bush's showing in 1994 against Chiles is a clear example of what name recognition can do, Clark said.

"He has as many qualifications to be governor as my house cat, and he damn nearly won. He never organized a turtle race before that. I was amazed," Clark said.

Maude Ford Lee changed her name to Maude Ford upon getting a divorce in 1989 from the now late Percy Lee, the county Urban League director.

As a candidate for County Commission in 1990, she realized the name she went by most of her adult life was the one that would get her elected. "No one has stopped calling me Maude Ford Lee," she said at the time.

She got a judge to approve her becoming Lee again in time for the 1990 ballot, won office, and was re-elected in 1994.

Ron Klein has his own take on whether Guarina Klein will gain from having the same name. "It would boil down to if people view my name in a good way. If so, it couldn't hurt."said Klein, who is seeking the state Senate seat being vacated by Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton, who is running for Congress.

Driving Mrs. Matson

Lynne Matson is the Blanche DuBois of Palm Beach County.

"I've always relied on the kindness of strangers," the 49-year-old Boynton Beach city commissioner likes to say, quoting Tennessee Williams' emotionally dependent character in A Streetcar Named Desire.

Matson's dependency, though, is a driving one: She's never had a driver's license.

After all, the New York native, who moved to Boynton Beach in 1987, has always relied on New York's public transit system and, as a Boynton Beach commissioner, on fellow politicians.

"Elected officials are like nuns; they travel in a pack," Matson says.

But people don't often travel in packs throughout District 3, which Matson plans to canvass in her campaign to take fellow Republican Warren Newell's place as county commissioner. The district runs from western Boynton Beach to southern West Palm Beach.

So along with boning up on complex issues such as development in the Agriculture Reserve and crime along the Lake Worth Corridor, Matson is practicing the tricky three-point turn. Thankfully, Matson notes that parallel parking is no longer part of the test.

But seeing well is. She recently failed the vision part of the exam and needs a new prescription to correct her nearsightedness.

"I've been real good to my constituents, so I don't want to run them down," she said.

Nicole Sterghos covers Palm Beach County government. She can be reached in our West Palm Beach office at 1-407-832-2905. Steve Nichol covers county government and the communities of unincorporated south county. He can be reached in our Delray Beach office at 1-407-243-6602. Their Politics column appears every Saturday.